Twisted Logic

As I write this post French police have surrounded a house in Tolouse.

Where a person - a young man - is holed up whom they suspect of carrying out the recent cold-blooded killings of a Jewish Rabbi and his children - and previous execution-style murders of French soldiers in uniform.

If they have the right person - which seems highly likely at this stage - the suspect is not a Nazi, as was widely speculated yesterday - but an Islamic extremist.

One out of the same mould as those behind the 9/11 terrorists attacks, the London underground bombings, the asssualt on commuter trains in Spain - and countless other atrocities around the world.

Apparently the young man wants the world to know that his actions were motivated by his anger about the treatment of the Palestinian people - and the killing of innocent people by Israel while responding to rocket attacks against its own civilian population.

Now we have been here before - the same propagandist arguments were used by some in an effort to justify 9/11.

But there is no moral equivalence between terrorists who set out to murder completely innocent people in cold blood - and what is going on in the Palestinian territories.

Islamic fundamentalists such as the one holed up in Toulouse have no political agenda - other than their extreme religious beliefs - there is no negotiation to be had with people who believe their holy war or 'jihad' has God's support - and that murder can be committed in their God's name.

Yet the liberation struggle in South Africa did not descend into this kind of vile terrorism and casual disregard for human life.

No, apartheid in South Africa was defeated by brave men and women - who had reason, humanity and justice on their side.

As did the civil rights movement in America - it has to be said.

The key difference now is that Islamic fundamentalism is no better than a form of religious fascism - which feels no compunction in blowing up fellow human beings in pursuit of their goals - even fellow Muslims.

So it's good to hear the French authorities emphasise that 99% of Muslims have absolutely no truck with the Islamic fundamentalists - and that there should be no backlash against Muslim communities in France.

Because these despicable killings were not done in their name.

We shall see what happens during the rest of the day.

But it certainly looks as if the French authorities have run this coward and defenceless child killer to ground - at the same time as someof his victims are being buried in Israel.